Backstory: My wife and I have been watching the first season of Ironside on DVD, and see the same building over and over in the stock establishing shots at the beginning of most episodes.
It is on the top of a (populated) hill and is tall and round, looks like a lighthouse. Gray/off-white in color (assuming our TV set’s colors are fine).
What is that building?
Sir Rhosis
Yes, that looks like it. On the show, it is always a long shot that starts on it and pans away, never shows a close-up, but the top of it looks like the stock shot.
Thanks. Knew I’d get an answer fast.
EDIT: While we’re here, in the shot taken from Fisherman’s Wharf (in Wikipedia article, what is the slightly needle-shaped building to the right of Coit Tower? If you tell me that one, I will have had my quota of SF geography today.
Sir Rhosis
Hey, I knew the answer before I even read the post. 
Probably the 2nd most identifiable figure on the SF skyline after the TransAmerica building.
Should have posted again instead of editing. My EDIT question above – is that the TransAmerica Building I’m describing from the photos in the Wiki article?
Sir Rhosis
I believe so. Is this what you meant?
Yep.
Thanks again, guys. Any questions you might have about the Cincinnati skyline, fire away.
Sir Rhosis
I’ll also note that if you’re facing South (like from Fisherman’s Wharf), they Coit is to the left of the Transamerica building. But if you’re facing West (like from the Bay Bridge approach), it’s to the right.
Also, if you’re walking down Lombard (the “crookedest street”) and keep going, you’ll end up at the base of Coit.
Coit is designed to look like a fire hose nozzle (or so I was told).
Not according to wiki.
Coit Tower is awesome. Just the view from the top of the hill it’s on is marvelous. If you go to the top, the windows you see around the very top are covered with plexiglass to prevent jumpers, but there exists a small gap between the plexiglass and the wall. And on each windowsill is hundreds of coins left there by tourists, many of them from outside the US. It’s interesting to see where all of the currency is from, and a great deal of the coins I saw had Chinese or Japanese script on them.
Don’t you actually have to flip the coin up over the window? I think it’s actually a pretty difficult shot. Also, Coit Tower has stunning WPA murals in the base. Supposedly, there are wild parrots living there, although I’ve never seen them.
. . . Is the designer’s name really Lillie Hitchcock Coit? 
Is there one? 
Huh…I would have said just the opposite. When I went up it in…hmm…91?92? it smelled of urine…strongly. The views were nice, but there was trash all around the edges and it stank.
Oh yeah, the murals are neat. And I’ve seen the wild parrots! They do exist, or did several years ago when I was there.
If you squint just right…
Actually the Cincy skyline was used as the background for the opening credits in a quite famous soap opera in the 50s and 60s (Proctor and Gamble and all that, ya know). I just can’t remember which soap it was.
Sir Rhosis
Aren’t the murals by diego rivera?
btw, I believe that the correct name is coitus tower
